Lawmakers Scuttle Effort To Save Judicial Jobs

Lack Of Minority Judges Is Linked To Inaction

March 27, 1996|By MATTHEW DALY; Courant Staff Writer

The fate of 178 judicial workers scheduled to be laid off Friday got entangled Tuesday in the failure of the governor and legislative leaders to appoint black judges, exposing a long-simmering political rift at the Capitol.

The connection between the two seemingly unrelated issues became apparent after legislators in committee effectively killed a last- minute bill to save the jobs. They called it a sloppy and misdirected piece of legislation and refused to bring it to a vote.

But an undercurrent of anger emerged following the appropriations committee meeting, sparked by a comparison between the effort to save the jobs of mostly-white courthouse workers and the absence of African Americans in a recent round of judicial appointments.

``If they can find money for this now, maybe they could've found some other things before,'' said Rep. William R. Dyson, a New Haven Democrat and one of the highest ranking African Americans in the General Assembly. He is co- chairman of the budget-writing appropriations committee.

``The effort that went in to finding this did not go into anything else,'' Dyson said, referring to the judicial appointments and the attempts to avoid the layoffs.

Dyson's committee was voting Tuesday on a $10.08 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1. He was the key figure in the panel's decision not to take up an amendment earmarking $700,000 in forfeited court bond money to save the judicial workers' jobs.

In doing that, Dyson was pitted against another powerful Democratic leader, Rep. Michael P. Lawlor of East Haven, co-chairman of the judiciary committee.

The dispute also involved -- indirectly, at least -- House Speaker Thomas D. Ritter, D-Hartford, a former Dyson ally who has mounted a bid for an unprecedented third term as speaker next year, and has been challenged by Dyson.

Lawlor, a close Ritter ally, had pushed for the amendment to save judicial jobs, saying it would provide a ``cooling-off period'' that would allow the judicial department, the governor's office and unions representing the workers to attempt to negotiate a new agreement.

The amendment sailed through the judiciary committee Monday on a voice vote, and Lawlor, a member of the appropriations panel, planned to bring it up in that committee Tuesday. He never got the chance.

Dyson and his co-chairman, Sen. Robert L. Genuario, R-Norwalk, refused to consider it. Committee chairmen control meeting agendas and thus have the power to decide whether a bill is voted on.

Dyson and Genuario said later that the amendment was not germane to the budget and was not likely to have saved the judicial jobs anyway, since the measure needed to be approved by the House and Senate and signed by Gov. John G. Rowland -- all before Monday -- to prevent the layoffs.

``That is an issue that was not properly before us today,'' Genuario told reporters.

Dyson nodded agreement but said there was another reason why the measure was not brought up for a vote: ``I have a deep and abiding problem with the way we conduct business around here.''

Dyson questioned the amount of effort Lawlor and other Democratic leaders were expending on the judicial jobs -- which involve mostly white clerical workers -- and charged that a similar effort was missing when it came time to pick black judges.

Dyson said later he was referring to the fact that not one of the 10 judges recently appointed to the bench is an African American. While Rowland made all 10 appointments, he gave effective control of five of the appointments to Ritter.

Dyson publicly criticized the judicial appointments last month, saying they made worse an already ``abysmal'' record on hiring minority judges in Connecticut.

Dyson singled out Ritter for criticism and said the failure to nominate any black judges was especially galling in light of former Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr.'s failure to include any blacks in a group of 13 judges appointed in late 1994. Those nominations triggered a protest by the legislature's Black and Puerto Rican Caucus; Weicker later won approval for the 13 by nominating two more judges, including one who is black.

Given that backdrop, Dyson said Tuesday he was amazed that Lawlor would look to him for help in saving the judicial jobs. Dyson also said the amendment offered by Lawlor was ``pure junk,'' with virtually no chance of averting the layoffs.

Dyson said it would be a waste of time for the committee to vote on the judicial layoffs because there are no House or Senate sessions scheduled before Monday -- the first day that workers would be absent from their jobs.

``I have had no indication from leadership on either side of the aisle,'' that either chamber would be called into session to deal with the issue, Genuario said.

Lawlor agreed that the amendment was more symbolic than substantive, but he said it could have sent a powerful message to Rowland and Chief Court Administrator Aaron Ment that the legislature does not want the layoffs to go through.